Afreximbank opens platform for African infrastructure contract bidding

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) on Tuesday in Cairo presented an intra-African Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) platform designed to empower African contractors to bid for contracts successfully.

This allows for the seamless posting of key infrastructure projects within the EPC space in Africa for bidding by EPC companies.

The presentation, which took place during a workshop organised on the sidelines of the third Intra-African Trade Fair (IATF2023), also covered various products, programmes and initiatives developed by Afreximbank to support local companies engaged in infrastructure contract bidding.

Addressing the workshop, Kanayo Awani, executive Vice President of Intra-African Trade Bank at Afreximbank, said that the workshop’s objective was to promote African participation in large-scale African infrastructure projects and to promote the award of EPC contracts to African entities.

“We believe that this specialized capacity building programme will enable African contractors to bid for construction projects on the continent and beyond successfully,” she said.

The workshop was held to share the results of a survey on challenges faced by African contractors and the critical success factors in winning projects. It also featured presentations of success stories from companies that previously received support from Afreximbank, including Mota Engil, Elsewedy and Hassan Allam.

In their presentations, the company representatives highlighted the need for African countries to allow for the movement of labour across borders so that EPC contractors could bring in workers from other African countries where expertise existed. They also said that including local content requirements in EPC contracts would help to encourage the use of local contractors and enhance capacity building.

The workshop was capped off with the signing of facility agreements valued at US$200 million with Hassan Allam; US$30 million with Grainer Angola; US$50 million with DOTT Services; US$200 million with Arab Contractors; US$200 million with FDI; and US$300 million with Elsewedy.

IATF2023, Africa’s largest trade and investment fair, opened on November 9 and will run till November 15.

Hope Moses-Ashike

Hope Moses-Ashike is an Associate Editor, Banking and Finance, with more than a decade of experience reporting on Nigeria’s financial system and broader economy. She closely tracks market movements, monetary policy decisions, company disclosures, regulatory actions, economic indicators, and global developments, and interprets what they mean for businesses, investors, policymakers, and households. Her reporting helps readers understand complex issues such as inflation trends, foreign exchange market dynamics, interest rate decisions, bank performance, and investment risks. She also covers major international events and periodically travels to Washington, D.C., to report on the World Bank/IMF Spring and Annual Meetings. Her dedication to financial journalism has earned her multiple recognitions and invitations to high-level professional development programmes. She is an alumna of the International Visitors Leadership Programme (IVLP) in the United States and holds an Advanced Financial Journalism Certificate from the Press Association Training in London, UK. Her other notable achievements include completing the Lagos Business School CMC Programme, the Bloomberg Media Africa Initiative Programme, and a Master Class in Journalism at Rhodes University in South Africa.